by the associated pressFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis sought to escalate an embarrassing start to his presidential campaign on Thursday, outlining an aggressive travel schedule as his aides insisted he was well prepared for a lengthy Republican primary fight. funded and well positioned.
While DeSantis supporters privately acknowledged that the stalled announcement was an unwanted distraction, there was a widespread sense—even among some Republican critics—that its long-term political consequences would be limited, if any.
For skeptics, the campaign confirmed Thursday night that it had raised $8.2 million in the 24 hours since entering the race, a whopping amount that exceeded President Joe Biden’s raising over the same period .
“Does he wish he could do it again? Maybe,” David Oman, a veteran Republican Iowa operative, said of DeSantis’ mess-ridden debut. “Will we talk about it in 10 days? Probably not.”
DeSantis formally launched his campaign Wednesday night during an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. But the audio stream crashed frequently, making it difficult for most users to hear the announcement in real time.
On Thursday, the Republican governor announced plans for a three-state blitz with at least a dozen stops over the next week. He is scheduled to campaign in Iowa on Tuesday and Wednesday before traveling to New Hampshire on Thursday and South Carolina on Friday.
“We are focused on taking Gov. DeSantis’ visionary message to Restore America to every potential voter in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina,” said campaign manager Jenra Peck. “Our campaign is committed to investing the time to win these early enrollment states. No one will work harder than the government to share its vision with the country – they have just started the fight.
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DeSantis is presenting himself in the crowded GOP primary as the only legitimate Republican opponent to former President Donald Trump, who holds a large lead in early polls along with a strong hold on a significant portion of the GOP’s passionate base.
Yet Trump is saddled with his own baggage, which includes multiple legal threats and the determination of his 2020 election loss.
Meanwhile, DeSantis’ team started the campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank, including $8.2 million raised after Wednesday’s announcement, part of which came from donations received by bundlers who gathered Thursday in Miami. In the 24 hours since launching his campaign, Biden said he raised $6.3 million.
An adviser to DeSantis’ ally Super PAC said the group started with $33 million in the bank and 30 full-time paid staffers already in the first four states on the presidential primary calendar, with 14 already for the latter. Many more appointments planned. To hold primary competitions.
No other Republican presidential candidate, including Trump, has such an infrastructure. His aides declined to say how many employees he has in the initial states. “The numbers we’ll be talking about are the huge leads that President Trump is racking up in early states,” spokesman Steven Cheung said.
DeSantis faced serious questions about his rocky rollout during an all-day conservative media tour Thursday. But he gauged confidence in a matchup against Trump, claiming in a Newsmax interview, “There is a limit to the number of voters who will consider the former president at this point.”
“Now we’re going to launch a blitz. We’re going to be in these early stages. We’re really going to get this message out to our voters across the country,” DeSantis said. “They also understand that you need someone to serve two terms. You need someone who is capable of winning and winning big.”
While Trump’s team met with gleeful derision — “a #DeSaster of epic proportions,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Truth Social — many Republican officials, donors and early state activists suggested there would be few long-term consequences.
“Look, I like Elon Musk, but apparently he fired more than one IT guy,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a 2024 Republican presidential prospect and a periodic DeSantis critic, said on ABC’s “The View.” “You can’t blame Ron DeSantis for that.”
“I mean, if Elon Musk said to me, ‘We’re going to stream this,’ I’d be like, ‘Yeah, this guy knows what he’s doing.’ It didn’t work,” Sununu said. “Ron’s job was to give a speech and make a point. I think he did a pretty good job of that.”
Republican strategist Terry Sullivan, who managed Sen. Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign, suggested DeSantis is in a good position to recover from the initial stumble.
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“The big presidential campaign announcements are just about a short-term boom (in the polls) and online fundraising,” Sullivan said. “DeSantis doesn’t need any of this. He just needed to join the race and start campaigning. mission accomplished.”
Meanwhile, DeSantis was balancing his presidential ambitions with his day job.
On his first full day as a declared presidential candidate, the governor of Florida signed a bill granting tax breaks to Florida residents. They ranged from sales tax holidays on hurricanes and school supplies to permanent exemptions for necessities like baby and toddler diapers. He also approved a one-year tax exemption on gas stoves — a direct target at Democrats who have raised health concerns about the appliances.
Much of the discussion outside of Florida focused on the stalled announcement.
Former New Hampshire GOP chair Jennifer Horn described DeSantis’ rollout as a “shameful missed opportunity”. That said, the only potential long-term challenge was that it served as “a gift to Donald Trump”, which will almost certainly ensure it is not quickly forgotten.
According to Chris Egger, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, a “high level of interest” in DeSantis remains. He said several Republican Party groups have been requesting DeSantis to speak at their events.
“I think it was a very bold move to try something completely new in the announcement,” Egger said.
And while early polls show Trump with a wide lead over DeSantis among New Hampshire primary voters, Egger said a lot can change over time.
“I fully expect the race to be tight,” he said. “Government. DeSantis is definitely a serious and legitimate contender for the top spot.
Eric Levin, a Republican donor and outspoken Trump critic, said there was little talk in the donor community about DeSantis stumbling out of the gate. He said the governor of Florida is one of his top three candidates.
“No one is leaving him because of this. Whether or not he lost some people who could have jumped on the bandwagon to make it better, I don’t know,” Levine said. “Now, it’s a marathon from now to Iowa.”